My biggest challenge has been wallaby and wild turkey pressure on my ground cover and young trees/shrubs. I have been using wire cages around everything important that I will remove when they are more established. I need to make a nursery for my next big project I think
@@jaydnhughes6947 thanks for sharing! We don’t have any bush turkeys..(yet!) But a friend’s Syntropic rows were destroyed after they cleared some nearby lantana.. the turkeys moved in and only the eucalypts and bananas were left! So yes, great suggestion, I’ve just put baskets around some of the fruit trees to stop wallabies nibbling.. and definitely worth having a home nursery if you’re able to. Saved me a fortune! 💚🌿
Great to see what you're doing there. I'm at Kilkivan Q working on a 350 acre treeless farm. 7 ha planted 3 years ago, another 7 just done. Mostly fodder trees for stock. Putting in many Mulberry cuttings. Now creating beds by slashing & raking into windrows. No soil preparation & once the mulch has smothered grass planting tubestock, cuttings, & seed bombs. Follow up with slash & rake to remulch edges after planting. Keep up the good work!
We had thousands of dollars of damage - to our cars! It seems rodents like the taste of the insulation on the wires and none of the repellents we tried worked and traps were useless, more would move in to replace the dummies. The solution we finally had success with was taking advantage of the local shelter's 'barn cat' program, where they have what are basically feral cats that've been trapped, spay/neutered, vaccinated, etc. that are perfect for ridding us of our rodent problem (not a single bit of damage - or sign of them since). In our case we got two sets of three (thus 6 total) and we kept them in a (large) cage for around 6 weeks to allow them to associate the local sights, sounds and smells with 'home' and they've all remained now, over a year. And a few have eased up enough to pet them occasionally as well. I've also had rodents do exactly what happened to you in my orchard. What I found I had to do was to cut all the grass away from the trunk in the fall, so there'd be no cover for them there. That, of course, defeats the purpose of letting the grass provide cover for the young trees.
Maybe plant some Australian native Gastrolobium species, too. A significant number of the species accumulate monofluoroacetate (the key ingredient of the poison known commonly as 1080), which caused introduced/non native animal deaths. Garlic might also help to keep rodents away. They don't like the smell and garlic is pretty easy to grow next to a newly planted tree.
Your food forest strategy is identical to mine. I use a lot of woody debris in my rows since it’s readily available here in Virginia. I use same layout as you, have the same slope, same tree and alley spacing. I have three cats who are excellent field hunters, so no varmit problems. They seem to leave the birds alone, so I can still enjoy the sanctuary effect. So glad I found your channel.
Wow!!! I love this. Thanks for sharing, so great to know you are using the same strategy with the same slope. And I see you’re in a much cooler climate too. Please let me know if you ever post some videos! Love to hear more about what you’re growing in your part of the world too. And yes, that was the great thing about our cat too..he really had a taste for rabbit, rats and mice which made up a good portion of his diet and tended to leave the birds alone thankfully. Thanks again for watching and all the best with your food forest, Alex 💚🌿
Thanks for the updated! I’m invested in your food forest! It’s going to look amazing in 5 years! Sorry about the rodents, I’ve struggled with them in both Canada and Australia with trees I’ve planted.
A pleasure and thanks so much for watching. Yes.. I’m really looking forward to when things really develop and we are harvesting! Great to know I’m not alone too, especially since you’ve experienced rodent problems in very different climates. Best wishes with your trees, Alex 💚🌿
So upsetting when you put so much love and energy into growing them. I hope the next lot survives and you manage to protect them. I follow a smallholder in Portugal, where growing anything is very difficult due to the extreme heat and lack of water/rain. He had rodents eating through his drip irrigation to access the water.
It’s okay as I have the nursery and I can replace them with more established trees luckily.. these challenges are all good learning!! But that’s crazy about the rats eating through the poly pipe, that must have been so frustrating for them! 💚🌿
4:47 Oof you're game. I was half expecting a jumpscare from a redbelly or an eastern. Sorry about kitty and the rats (buggers)... and the mangoes too. Looks like you've got your hands full. Loving the knowledge and tips. Thanks Alex.
Haha! Actually that’s a great idea, more eastern browns and red belly blacks would sort out the rodent problem!! But that’s why I’m happy to clear that grass now..more rodents nesting = more snakes. I’m happy to leave other wild areas for the snakes where they won’t be disturbed. Along with the pythons they sort out the rabbits too. They’ve definitely started coming out now.. we’ve spotted a few. No more reaching into the long grass! 😬 Thanks again for watching and for your kind words. Alex 💚🌿
@@dreamsofgreen Man your botanical knowledge is scary. Almost reminds me of @Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't. Dropping species names like they're sons and daughters 🤣. Guess you have to know what you're propagating I suppose. Property looking great Alex. Loving the content.
Lovely to see you and your wonderful property looking so good! This spring has been so great for growing! You have so many lush and healthy trees, so I guess the few losses don’t hurt too much. Except the pecans! The only ground digging wildlife I have to contend with is bandicoots. If I plant something in a certain area where they’re really active, I lay a metre square piece of chicken wire around the plant once it’s in the ground to stop the bandicoots digging around the root system. Works perfectly. But that would be too time consuming in your system. I’d say you need another puss to help you out 😊🐀🐁🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈
Thanks Sharon! And it’s all good, I’ve got lots of pecans elsewhere around the place and they seem to be doing really well ☺️ And I think I might have to hire out the neighbour’s jack russell haha! But yes, I really like your method with the chicken wire and I can definitely do this for my more valuable trees. I used to do it to stop the chooks from scratching and it worked really well! 💚🌿
My biggest challenge in the fruit forest is fitting all the rare fruit trees in! I must say you are game to be whipper snippering around your trees, early on i ring barked some expensive specimens. After that i put some short pieces of 250mm pvc around my young trees at the base then cut them off when the trees grew. Now i dont have to worry as everything is mulched and am starting to spread pinto peanut around. Keep up the good work.
Haha!! I’m amazed at your place Doug.. what you have managed to fit in is incredible. So many species you have that I’ve never even heard of. And thanks for the great tip! I’ll definitely have to try that around my more precious trees! I’m definitely looking forward to planting pinto peanut once we get some more shade and that grass under control. What a great cover crop. Cheers, Alex 💚🌿
Wonderful successes for such a low maintenance system. 👌I wonder if you will see owls/ tawnies moving in as the system matures to help manage the rodents 🤷♂️
Thank you and I hope so! We get plenty of birds of prey over head so I'm sure there is a good chance! There are definitely a few tawny frog mouths along the creek, we’ve been lucky to spot one at night sitting on a fence post 💚
Trust me, it’s a ridiculous temperature for here too! Summer and even in Spring we definitely get heat waves that can hit 40 or more but not normally in winter…! Then a week later we were putting on the heater again. Shame, it triggered flowering on some of the fruit trees early, but then the flowers dropped off again when it went back to winter temps so we only got 1 nectarine and 1 Brazilian cherry this year 🌿
Voles have a similar feeding pattern. What works for me is short grass and 1/4” hardware cloth. Still get some predation, but tolerable. If you like the birds, you might consider a couple of terriers instead of cats - nothing like seeing a couple of Jack Russells ‘working” out in the field!
Yes! Just found out my neighbour has a Jack Russell, I’m going to have to hire him out! Thanks for sharing about your experience with the voles and the short grass and hardware cloth too, really great suggestion. 💚🌿
How many frost do you get approximately per year? Also what’s your lowest Temperature? We get about 12 frosts per year , here in SEQ inland . We find now that most things are fine in winter as they are planted close enough. We have major issues with bandicoot’s , rats and mice. Do bananas grow in your area. They have easily been the star of our food forest. Frosts and all. Gone from 9 pathetic banana stubs to over 300 thriving palms, providing awesome shade and protection.
This is so good to know, thanks for sharing. This past winter we only had a mild winter and had a handful of light frosts. Sometimes it can get down to -3 or -4 degrees C, but just a brief frost as it will then get up to the low 20’s during the day. Usually if we get a frost It’s -2 but keeping the grass longer over winter really helps. I definitely want to try bananas again because now I have lots of pups with the bananas I’ve planted closer the house. The reason I didn’t plant bananas was more an issue with rainfall. The drought broke but then after all the rain it didn’t rain for a few months. The bananas I had planted shrivelled and died (although they were really small and not established). So I think it’s definitely worth trialling them again in a few different spots to see if they work (especially gives me confidence to do so now you’ve shared your experience with frost). Thanks again for your comment, really helpful! Alex 💚🌿
Do you think that heavy stick/log mulch around the base of the seedlings might help? I have recently done a heavy prune of two apple trees, and broke down the material with larger branches in soil contact followed by smaller stuff (syntropic agroforestry mulching style).
Love this idea! We have to saw the larger broken branches of the acacias so this would work.. and it’s time to do a big chop n drop of the acacias too. Thanks for the suggestion 💚🌿
Yes! And replant I will.. plenty of plants in the nursery ☺️ And I just checked how your farm is going Martin.. I’m so happy you got some rain!! Looks like the dogs are loving it 💚
plants in the mint family rabbit's and rodents don't like it as a rule. i had butterfly mint common and pepper mint in my flower garden under a tree, not sure what mints you have that will help in your climate may check into it plant around the base of the trees.
Like our veggie patch.. it’s all smooth sailing until they discover a new local supermarket! But not your she-oaks Bernie, they’re really starting to take off by the dam.. They mustn’t be very tasty!! Hopefully one day they’ll attract the black cockatoos that fly over 😊🌿
@@Bernie5172 I can relate.. today I discovered a family of goats proudly standing on our septic tank 😂 They had just started to eat the bananas when I found them.. that was close! 😅 But yes, I definitely wasn’t happy when the cows got in and ate all the grafts off my grafted avocados.. 🥑🌿
Perhaps rats and mice should be seen as part of the food chain and foxes might spare your chicken when they have enough mice. I have a small bush of red currant in my orchard and every year some deer kill every new branches only on this bush, so it will always be small. Perhaps you need to invest in some wire cage to protect those pecans until they are big enough.
I love this story with your red currant and the deer.. and yes I like your way of thinking. I’ve just completely changed the landscape, I think things need time to find their own natural balance. And I tried cages on some other pecans but they dug under, however I think I may be able to lay wire on the ground, let the grass grow through the holes to anchor it down and then they can’t dig. So thank you for this! And I think too, definitely no more chickens until we have a much more secure enclosure. I’ve noticed too, friends who have dogs don’t seem to have a problem with foxes with their chickens. I’ve noticed quite a few rabbits around too, so that might keep the foxes satisfied too 💚🌿
This is such a great idea to give them nesting places. We get the big wedgetails circling, but I’ve noticed smaller hawks and birds of prey overhead too. I’ll have to do some more research (and get another cat!). Thanks for your suggestion. Alex 💚🌿
Haha! Our cat Reddy was pretty special. He was very good at keeping the mice, rabbits and rats under control.. but a lot of other cats can be prone to target the birds.. I guess it’s luck of the draw. And it’s definitely the wedgetail eagles you have to worry about with small pets, they’re huge!
Those trees you lost were probably affected by a fungus initially encouraged by the dampness which perpetuates in long setaria grass allowing the rodents easy access. I’d be wary of that Sateria grass which is spreading like wildfire across the north coast however the tiny native finches are becoming used to feasting on the seed helping to spread it. Your cat is great loss undoubtedly but if you want something to keep the foxes and rodents at bay get a fox terrier or two. They will work much better than any cat who only kill for sport. The last thing the world needs is another cat. They kill millions of native animals every year across Australia. Our place is a bit further east of yours in rainforest country. We have planted thousands of rainforest trees and we are now planting fruit trees amoung them. Every avocado tree I have purchased has died with pythophera fungus which I suspect was in the nursery where they came from so I am propagating my own and planting them all through the forest. We have an original native macadamia on the property I suspect is about 100 years old. The offspring are very hardy. I truly love your enthusiasm and have missed your contribution. I’m looking forward to your next one.
